Best Decade Tournament - 90s - Numbers wins!

[Heathen]

I'm going on vacation in 5 days so it would be nice if we could get this done with before that.

[LetMeSleep]

You can always send a list to someone with a few extras. Or let Stip pick for you.

[Kaius]

Tool - Stinkfist

[William Bloke]

I'm back and I'm pissed. But in the good way.

When I was doing my due diligence for this tourney this song got totally stuck in my head. And so I'm going to pick it.

Cypress Hill - Ain't Going Out Like That

[William Bloke]

I'm going on vacation in 5 days so it would be nice if we could get this done with before that.

[ABNorman]

Well, we got up to this point in under 3 days, so we're looking good.

[William Bloke]

Big fan of 90's chill at the mo.

[LetMeSleep]

Dsb is up. Has anyone PMd him?

[dsb1218]

My next pick is real-er than Real Deal Holyfield



Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Doggy Dogg - Nuthin But A G Thang

[Sgt. Crackpot]

Faith No More - Ashes to Ashes

[stip]

Tool - Stinkfist

My favorite tool song

[Heathen]

You can always send a list to someone with a few extras. Or let Stip pick for you.

I'd let him pick the song I think he's going to pick next.

[koopee27]

Faith No More - Ashes to Ashes

damn you.

kp

[Brett]

I hate that I keep having to make my picks via proxy, but I worked 12PM-10PM on Wednesday, 8AM-4:30PM yesterday, and will be working 11AM-7PM today, so someone else will probably be posting my next pick as well.

On the plus side, only one song that I really wanted has been stolen so far, and it wasn't even by Heathen. Fortunately, I have no such qualms about picking an artist who's already present, so I can probably get a pretty good substitute pick.

[stip]

Okay, time to get caught up on listening to people's picks.

[stip]

The Breeders - 'Safari'

Not a fan of the breeders but this wasn't bad

[stip]

Wu Tang Clan’s 1993 debut is considered a classic, but people forget how completely radical it was when it was first released. This was the pinnacle of the Snoop/Dre “g-funk” era, which featured million-dollar production that sounded like it actually cost a million dollars: thick drums, massive, rumbling (live) basslines, moaning female backup singers, and glossy keys. By contrast, Wu Tang’s debut sounded like it was recorded in a trash bag submerged fifty feet under water. It was murky, it was grimy, it was just plain weird sounding. The fact that it sounded so totally out of left field was one thing that made people listen over and over again. Were these cats serious? Was this for real? Was it good or horrible?

The Wu sprung seemingly out of nowhere and invited listeners to step into a fully formed but totally new world. For rap fans, it was like discovering a new planet, one that was not only inhabited but seemed a lot more interesting than home. It was the sonic equivalent of the bar scene in the first Star Wars movie. Dialogue snippets from obscure Kung Fu flicks smashed up against herky jerky beats. Nothing sounded right, nothing sounded in place. It was impenetrable and it was fantastic. Undeniable – and this was key – was that the group’s nine (!) rappers were supremely gifted lyricists with distinct styles, flows, cadences, and subject matters. Those brick thick New Yawk accents, which sounded straight out of central casting from a Scorsese flick, made everything that much more fun.

Although you could make a case for “C.R.E.A.M.” (the most famous song, but one that sounds like nothing else here) there’s no single track that really represents the Wu debut. The group had too many ideas, too many rappers, too many samples to summarize it in a single track. But for sheer weirdness, I always liked the second tune, which features three of the Clan’s most compelling MCs: Ol’ Dirty Basterd, the group’s crazy-eyed complete nut job; Method Man, a hot-flowing stoner; and Raekwan, the Clan’s most rugged and in-your-face lyricist. Listen to those jagged horn samples. Listen to that beat that you can’t quite tap your feet to. Listen to the rhymes that don’t quite connect, skipping words that you expect to be there. What are these guys even saying? I have no idea. Through the grime and murk, one thing was crystal clear – whatever this was, it was awesome.



Wu Tang Clan – “Shame on a Nigga”

I'm not more than passingly familiar with most of the rap that's been drafted but this was pretty good, too

[stip]

One glance at the cover of the Geto Boys 1991 sophomore opus “We Can’t Be Stopped” made it clear that whatever music was inside was not for the meek of heart.



From wiki:

“The album cover is a graphic picture of member Bushwick Bill in the hospital. Bill was shot in the eye as he and his girlfriend tussled over the gun. Bushwick Bill wanted her to kill him and during the altercation he was shot as both hands were on the gun. The other two Geto Boys members and the group's management team took Bill out of the hospital room in order to take the picture, removing his eyepatch and intravenous drip in the process.”

Few songs in rap manage to capture a mood quite like the album’s standout single. It’s easily the finest song the Get Boys ever served up. A sense of paranoia and stress runs through every second of the song. The first three verses (by Scarface, Willie D, and then Scarface again) offer a laundry list of woes, set to a perfectly chosen Isaac Hayes sample that solidifies the creepy vibe.

But the song doesn’t really give you chills until the third verse, spit by Bushwick Bill, the trio’s de facto leader (and likely the only midget rapper to ever go Platinum). While Scarface and D tell tales of peeping out of windows and seeing enemies in the everyday, Bill takes it a step further. It’s Halloween and he and the crew are out trick or treating, hilariously “robbing little kids for bags.” They gets into a fistfight with a frightening adversary, so tall that they must “triple team” him.

The more I swung the more blood flew
Then he disappeared and my boys disappeared, too
Then I felt just like a fiend
It wasn't even close to Halloween
It was dark as fuck on the streets
My hands were all bloody from punching on the concrete

It’s all been a hallucination. It’s not Halloween, there was no adversary, or even a crew. There is just Bill, alone in the dark, punching his fists to bloody pulps as he rains down blows upon on the concrete.

That’s pretty brilliant storytelling, folks, at least for a set of song lyrics. And this really was one of the first gangsta rap tunes that didn’t either brag about how great it was to be a gangsta or describe in clichéd terms the struggles of thug life. Rather, it recounted in blunt, knowing prose the mental anguish of the streets -- the paranoia, the feeling of constantly looking over one’s shoulder, of assuming the worse about those closest to you, and eventually slipping into dementia. Lots of songs have copied this blueprint, but none have topped the original.



Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks on Me

also pretty good.

[stip]

Swans - Helpless Child

I wish it didn't take 30 minutes to listen to heathen's picks

[epilogue]

Bart chooses...

Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend

Very nice!

Totally forgot about that song.